Vagabond
by Yoshiman
Summary: If life taught me anything, it is: Carry two fully loaded weapons at all times, live to serve, shoot to kill, life is an adventure, and never look at anything the same way twice.
1. The Wanderer

Note: Before you read this, if you haven't already, go read FireHybrid's _Intertwine Dreams_. If you don't, this story might make little sense to you.

VAGABOND

By Yoshiman, a.k.a. Rick Griffin

Chapter 1

The Wanderer

Wildest Dreams.

What's that phrase mean to you? If only by some chance they might come true, so that you life would become more comfortable/luxurious/adventurous/monotonous/whatever than it is, life would be just perfect.

Perfection rears its ugly head.

A paradise, on my hand, is unpredictability, yet safety from untimely death. Lucky I got both. All happened when the world changed. . .

Yes, the world changed. It used to be much unlike what it is now. Thank whatever gods there are now for that. I might have died from my previous experiences.

I hate erratic monotony.

Sounds like an oxymoron? I'm sure some of you led the live I lived. . . _lived_. . . But I'm not here to go into details. I'll go into when everything changed. . .

What I'm talking about is before the, well, 'incident'. Back when everything was how it used to be. When I was a lonely teen, not finding acceptance from much anywhere except in my artwork. To tell the truth, my parents loved me, but they didn't understand me all the way. There were things I wanted, like solitude, adventure, and just exploring. I never thought I would actually get those things. My name's. . . well, you can call me Rick Griffin. I was six feet tall, brown hair, gray eyes. This is my story of change.

As I was talking about, the surprising thing, I had received a beta version of an internet Game Boy link. This was a shock, as I never received anything, but also my older brother wasn't home so I got to test it first. But what to play?

My internet server wasn't very reliable at the time, so I picked a game that I could play a quick game of, and more importantly, cheat in. I picked up my Pokémon Blue cartridge.

I'll admit it, I cheated in it. It cost thirty dollars for the Pelican game enhancer with built in Pokémon cheats, and I wasn't going to let my money go to waste. Besides, I always had a resentment to cheaters in other online games, so I played against players with screen names like D@r| |\|e0 and P|-|33R |) |_33+ /\/\@n to give them a taste of their own medicine. Thus said, I had my pokémon's stats maxed out to 999 on everything, including hit points.

I don't cheat much. I'm not a cheater at heart. As a matter of fact, I epitomize fair play. 'Course, I also epitomize justice. Mine's more revenge-like, though. . . justice desserts, if you get my drift.

But now the oddest thing happened. I woke up in an unknown van, the oddest thing about it I really didn't intend to fall asleep. Or actually fall asleep for that matter. Or even get out into an open stretch of highway somewhere in the Midwest. But that didn't prepare me for when I looked down.

I wasn't me.

Well, of course I was _me_, but it wasn't the me I knew when I thought of 'me'. Another me took me. . . er, 'my'. . . place. What this new me was I wanted to know.

I only realized it after I had started scratching my head, noticing a strange absence of hair, but instead fur. I looked at my hands, now rendered 'paws'. It was time for a body check. And mirrors nearby that I might possible use. . .? The van's rearview mirror.

Shock. Surprise. I was a Typhlosion.

Not _exactly _a Typhlosion. . . there was a very distinguishing fact that my face looked relatively human. . .

I was a _hybrid_!

There it is again, wildest dreams. At least one of them. . . I least expected this one to come true, out of all the much strangeness of the other dreams of mine.

Dream?

Maybe this was a dream. No, if it were a dream, I would always wake up afterwards. And besides, my dreams didn't obey the laws of physics at all. Now if I could _fly_, that would also be cool. . .

What am I doing? Since this wasn't a dream, it was real. Was it? Maybe someone tripped me up with LSD. No, I don't think that would obey the laws of physics, either.

So this was real.

Typhlosion. . . it was odd, as I had always been partial to cold. Aversion to water, yes, but not to cold. Meaning? I supposed there was none. I was a new me. This was a new life.

Man, it felt exciting.

But now on to more important matters. What of this world? Was it still the same as before I turned into this new me? Was this where I lived? I didn't want to take chances at the moment. It was time to go. But first. . . Some more quick checks. . .

I currently wore no shirt, just blue jeans. No shoes, either. I checked: No underwear. Fur is a good thing to have. Moreover, I was at least twelve or thirteen inches taller, and had a wider girth than my previous skinny frame. I had a tail of fire, something that I don't recall being usual for Typhlosions, but I had one anyway. That was going to make sitting down a little hard.

And whoever's van this was, I sure hoped he wouldn't miss a mechanical pencil and a clipboard of paper. . .

\-~|~-/

Lucky for me, I wasn't alone in this world. There seemed to be enough different hybrids around. . . I retraced all the theories through my head. I'd been to several pokémon hybrid websites. Which, if any, applied here? What rules applied?

It was time to make a pit stop.

Pit stop was weird. I guess it had to do with this body. The tail of mine didn't seem to scald any rims or whatnot; it just cooled down. But I was also here for some other things: snack machines. I got a few Snickers for now and the road. My wallet seemed to be chalk full of money, lucky for me. And the walls of this place were likewise with maps. America was intact, thank goodness, as was much of the known world. So the geography was basically the same. . .

Yes, there were also humans, as well as actual pokémon. And then I wondered. . . it was time for a little experiment. I ran outside to the miniature park.

No one was around, So I decided to test something out. Making a fire ball, or at least fire breath. It took me a while, and I don't know how I did it, but I coughed up an Ember attack. Useful. . . maybe I'll take up smoking or something less poisonous.

A little stronger now. I could crank up the heat like a stovetop to a Flamethrower with a little concentration.

This was so cool. I wonder what I can use it for. . . or what else I could do.

There was a park table nearby. Maybe I had enhanced strength. . . I quickly lifted it up into the air, and discovered it _had_ been bolted to the ground. I replaced it before anyone noticed.

In an amazing stroke of luck, if you could call it that, I happened to witness a robbery taking place in the parking lot. It was a common criminal, human, no weapon, he just came up and snatched a woman's purse, then running towards the thin forest behind the station. Being of that vengeful sort by nature, I was inclined to stop him.

Jump. Landed in from of him from twenty feet away. The crook swung the bat he was carrying at me almost in perfect time and reflex. If there had been a brick wall standing where I was, it might have had the same effect.

I grabbed him by the collar, and just for fun, shook him until he dropped the purse. I discarded him like a used tissue (in the garbage can) and returned the handbag to it's owner. The lady was obviously relieved to have her purse back, but was, to be honest a little frightened of me. Understandable. She thanked me anyway.

That was also cool. It was official, I told myself, I had become a veritable superhero. But there were so many others like me, it seemed. Or were there? Probably not so, as not all pokémon were ultra killing machines. I was positive I wasn't unique, though, in that respect. Others had to be like me. Much like me. . .

Had the world realized it changed? I stunned myself at not have bringing that subject up sooner. It seemed as though it were business as usual. I had better not risk embarrassment by asking. It had to have not realized it changed itself, I supposed. The lady didn't run off screaming, in the least, and pokémon. . . no, too many things to realize change and not go into pandemonium.

And like me. . . maybe others realized change.

\-~|~-/

Time passes and the world becomes ever more the strange, and for the better.

Number one reason being I didn't need to sleep for more than two hours a night, and I had more than a thousand dollars in my wallet. And it was growing. I'll get back to that. . . now about people.

The world in general seemed like normal, excepting the fact I seemed to have been treated like a black man in the Queens section of New York City. Not that I didn't get any respect. . . just not enough. Well, so much for Utopia. Not my idea of perfect anyway. . .

I know I could count on certain people to trust me anyway. . . and some of the sources seemed weird that way. Law enforcement officers (Every force _has _to have a 'Jenny') and Pokémon center attendants, of course other hybrids, and the general population didn't mind much. Taxi cab drivers on the other hand. . . (IT'S CAUSE I'M A HYBRID, ISN'T IT? I yelled once just to be funny in my own mind)

Now for a job to make my wallet grow. What could I do? I could make use of this clipboard I'd been carrying for two weeks now. And that I did.

The old me was a mediocre artist, compared to what the other street artists might have done. But now I _was _one of them. My eye could pick out the keen differences in shadow and light. Nifty effect to be able to do something I couldn't do before. Sold portraits for fifteen dollars a piece, bought colored pencils and sold color portraits for thirty. I made just enough to not lose any money every day. . . Then I came upon a festival.

Historic city. Tourist season. Festival time. What luck. . . I just had to find the organizer to see if I could get a table. . .

The three-day festival was awesome. I sat there until it was almost store closing time. Made six hundred dollars. If I could do that every day. . . No problem living at all. Fancy hotels every night. and I always liked four-star meals. . .

I deposited the cash back into my wallet when I noticed a card in a slot. I took it out to inspect it.

A _driver's license_.

So it _was _my van after all. . . The card said I was twenty-one. Old enough for anything. Of course, I told myself, I could easily have fabricated a false birth certificate. So I was basically twenty-one. The ID itself had some interesting features, including both my Hybrid and my Human stats on it. _Human stats?_ I raced through my mind. Transform into human? What could this mean? I went through the theories again. Not Pokémorphs, definitely. That's human normally then change to pokémon form. But maybe that 'new' fanfiction I 'recently' read. . . A New Beginning. By Fire Hybrid. If that's it, than I should be able to change into a human by concentrating. . .

Success. I was the old me. And I just realized I didn't care much for the old me. The most the old me could do was pass for a human. Maybe I should go buy a shirt. . .

Shirt I did buy. (I got one with the word 'Typhlosion' on it) And I was still transfixed on the license. It had 'hybrid alias' under the picture of me, and I could assume that some Hybrids might give themselves nicknames. Mine was 'Fuzzball'. Heh, that was funny to me seeing how that was one of my previous internet nicks.

\-~|~-/

I didn't go back for my van that moment, I decided to take the scenic route back. Spending a few weeks traveling (That wasn't hard for me on foot, I never seemed to get tired as a Hybrid) I took a long way around. I had learned much about my human form, too, mostly that I was still strong, but not nearly as much as I was in hybrid form. I still could walk as far, I was still sturdy as a brick wall, and I didn't need much sleep.

A long time afterwards, I had reached a place called 'Sapphire City'. Or maybe it was 'Town'. It didn't matter, most every place was one of those two. . . Hmm. What was I doing here?

I had barely arrived, when I was mugged again. (This was probably the tenth or eleventh time in my trip.) I might have just broken his spine like I did the others. (Well not really. Just maimed them then ran out of town cause I was sure as you-know-where I wasn't going to show my face there for another month or so.) But he struck fear into me. He was a Wortortle Hybrid.

Always thinking on my feet, I slipped the twenty that I hid in my change purse for just such an emergency, into my pocket, and threw the wallet at the mobster. He caught it and ran like the wind. Hindsight, I probably should have changed to human right that moment, but I didn't know if it would have mattered.

With my twenty dollar bill I had saved, I went to a nearby Applebee's restaurant, luckily serving to both humans and Hybrids. Knowing I probably wasn't going to sleep in a hotel that night, I spent my last twenty on pasta. The following was a bit embarrassing, but it happened: The pasta was cold when it arrived at my plate, so being the intuitive person I am, I decided to warm it up with a little Ember. Not being able to flick it on for a minute or so, and constantly getting angrier at it, I yelled, "THAT'S IT!" And launched a flamethrower attack. Needless to say, I couldn't repay the restaurant for the table, but I didn't even have a shirt on my back to give to them. The kicked me out permanently.

Besides losing my last twenty bucks, I didn't get to eat that night. So much for honor.

Then the oddest thing happened. I saw a group walk out of Applebee's, and when I saw one of them I immediately thought of Fire Hybrid. I had met Fire Hybrid over AIM. We'd become fast friends. And I couldn't stop thinking about it when I saw that certain certain kid with them. I don't know, he seemed. . . familiar. . . I might learn something if I followed them. So I did.

A residential part of town. I fought the urge to ring the doorbell, but everyone rushed out of the house anyway. They forgot to lock the door, and I let myself in.

That was easy. And now I was a thief. I didn't have a flashlight with me, but my natural flames illuminated the place far more than enough. I searched for a computer room for some reason. I found it, and a n almost new computer, and I flicked it on and hacked in. There were files for the story _A New Beginning_. And half of the next chapter. This was his computer all right. How oddly coincidental. I made my way back to the porch.

So FireHybrid was here. Maybe now I could learn something useful. If he still remembered the old world, But I'd have to take my chances on disconcertion sooner or later anyway. It was all about risk, this entire thing was. I never regretted one thing about this strange new world. Left to my own devices. Leeching off society. Life was good, and screw the opposition.

I sat on something. . . a stone, and a note. I pocketed them quickly, intending to give them to the intended receiver. When he returned, of course.

----

I'll pick this up when I need to. Ciao!


	2. The Hunter

Finally! This part of the story takes place a week later. . . between chapter three and four of _Intertwine Dreams. _Enjoy!

Chapter 2

The Hunter

There's a job to do, and I must do it now. Course, no one ever said I couldn't have fun while doing it. . .

". . . _CAUSE HE LOVES YOU CHEESEBURGER WITH ALL HIS HEART! AND AIN'T NOTHING GONNA DRIVE YOU TWO-OH APART! AND IF_-"

"Rick? Mind keeping it down?" Xavier was infringing on my singing territory in the kitchen. Even if the mop handle _was _a microphone, my voice carried farther than it might ever.

I was there in the kitchen doing my clean-up duty cause I accidentally dropped my Pepsi bottle on the floor, and in a rare and equally annoying instance, it busted open. Stupid clumsy new fingers of mine.

Actually I finished cleaning the kitchen about six lines ago. I still gotta finish the song.

"I can hear you from across the house." He finished. I continued my singing at a much lower decibel level.

". . . _THE WORLD SUDDENLY RAN OUT OF CHEESE, HE WOULD GET DOWN ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES_-"

I like singing obscure lyrics, or even just emulating music noises. Not that I ever wanted to be a musician, just that, I just like music. Almost as much as I liked games.

That reminded me. I still needed to buy myself some memory cards of my own for Xavier's game stuff. Mental note. . . check. Time to go shopping. And even this being an alternate reality and all, Gamecube was still scheduled to come out later that year. Note, check. And another Pepsi. Note, check. And another T-shirt, maybe. This one was starting to tear in several places. Note, check. While I'm at it, I might as well get myself a small wardrobe because these clothes were the only ones I'd worn for, what, five weeks? Letsee. . . last week of August. . . yeah. And the only part I even considered washing was the shirt. Note, check. Hmm. . . everything?

I'd need my own house after all of these new things. Or maybe just get my van back. I didn't have the keys, so they were probably still in the van, which means anyone could've taken it. Crap. Well, I might never see it again. . .

Now that I thought about that, I wondered whether I was intruding too much in Xavier's home. . . nah. He invited me, I was just planning on asking a few questions.

I heard Xavier again, only this time it sounded like thunder as he rushed down the stairs. "I need to go to the Pokémon Center right quick." He told me as I went to see what all the ruckus was about, "I'll be back later."

Hmm. . . this wasn't a workday. . . "Eh, um. . . I'm coming, too." I said, because I could only hold info for so long in my brain before I had to do a data dump. Long term memory on my behalf only works if it's not useful.

"Well. . ." He said, going over who would be left in the house, ". . . Amber's still here, so alright."

Doc Chris Bradford had left earlier that morning for a family outing. Nice guy, _huge_ family. And not even all of them were here at the same time. For the .1% maybe ratio of hybrid population in America, I think his extended family might cover half of it.

Amber was a nice girl too. And the funny thing was, all four of us were fire type hybrids. Weird coincidence, I suppose.

Now that I thought about _that, _(Whoa, deja vu!) I did remember back in the old me-old life, I was still playing the computer gameboy adapter thing before everything went black. Yeah, I remembered that I had selected Typhlosion as a pokémon right before. . . well, best dwell on things of the future.

I grabbed my wallet (Containing now a total of $360 from my efforts) and my green backpack that I take places now and followed Xavier out the door.

The bus ride was uneventful like most, and luckily I had a notepad with me and a mechanical pencil (.05 mm lead never steers me wrong!) to doodle on the way to town.

When we arrived, I had a great collage of the suburbs in general, and wished I brought a notebook without lined paper.

I found a electronics store, sure enough, but the nearest clothes shopping place was a few miles away. . . So I decided to stuff the memory cards and copy of _Final Fantasy IX_ in my pack and take a different route. In the nearest patch of green, I decided to see how fast I could get there for the fun of it.

"Marksetgo!" I slurred together in a fashion worthy of a baseball coach, and started running.

It's an odd trait of mine in new me; I never seem to get tired. That said, I found it less of a challenge until I tried it from tree branches. Wished there were larger trees around. Maybe I was in the wrong place.

Record time of twelve minutes and ten seconds, never even caught my second wind. Don't know if I _had _a second wind to catch. . .

The clothing store was as all clothing stores are like: full of clothing. But my particular brand of vanity didn't have a section of it's own, so I spent at least ten minutes looking for a few 'Typhlosion' shirts, one of which I found was a 'Typhlosion' Band T. It seems as though Typhlosion was the name of a semi-popular rock band.

The clerk looked at me funny as she ringed up the price of my clothes. I didn't know why, just probably because all the T's said 'Typhlosion on them, or because I was only buying T-shirts and winter was coming up, but whatever the reason, she gave me the, 'You're a screwy one' look.

Maybe I should have my T's personalized.

Pokémon Center. This place is a gift from the gods. I mean, the entire place reeks of this New World, and makes me happy just knowing that it's there. And. . . there's reading material on the subject I would like to look into: Pokémon training.

Shame that 80% of the books very dry through and throughout. It takes at least thirty minutes to find something worthwhile to read, and then three minutes to skim through all the important stuff. (I've always been a fast reader.) Realizing that I was almost back where I started an hour later, I decided that I'd best look in a real library.

Smack self on forehead. _That's_ what I forgot! I had been thinking throughout most of my time here that I should really find a library to learn about the New World. _Now _I remember. . .

Xavier passed by. Only he wasn't Xavier, he was Fire Storm right now. Wait a second. . . I don't recall him being in hybrid form on the job. . .

"Fire Storm!" I called him for an answer.

He turned around and was startled to see me. "Oh, hey, Rick."

"Awfully strange. . ." I broke into one of my I've-got-a-cunning-thought speeches, "I thought you were human while on the job."

Fire Storm was immediately cornered, "Look, I was just. . ."

"You're going on another 'adventure', aren't you?" I was completely miffed when I had heard about all his daring escapades, and not one of them included me, technically because I wasn't there at the time. And. . . I had this intuition. I don't think I had intuition before. Or maybe it's sheer random luck.

"Alright!" He said, "Yes! I am! Now what?"

"Well, I wanna come!"

"You can't!"

"Why not?"

"Want me to list off the reasons? I'll list off the reasons! One. . ."

"Let's put it another way. . ." I interrupted, "Either I go with you OR I tell you mom. . ." I really wouldn't, but then again I also get mad when I don't get to see a movie at least weekly.

"You are really making this difficult. . ."

"The lowdown, please."

Fire Storm sighed, "I have a secret job as a bounty hunter."

"Cool beans! Here?!"

"Yeah. Keep it down. . ."

"Ok!" I whispered loudly.

Fire Storm sighed again, "Yes. If you insist on coming along, there's several things you must know. Number one: Do not mention anything about my home to my partner, Phoenix."

"Partner?"

"Yeah. She's an Arcanine hybrid."

"She hot?"

"She's my mom!"

Large jaw drop, "And no discussing home because. . ?"

"_She_ doesn't know _I'm _her son!"

Larger jaw drop. "This is starting to sound like a soap opera."

"But with nobody getting pregnant."

"Well. . . at least not yet. . ."

Fire Storm's shoulders sunk, "And don't mention anything about _sex _to her, either. . ."

"Why's that? She can't find Mr. Right?"

"Because _SHE'S IN LOVE WITH ME!_"

"Ohh. . . kay. I think I got it all down. No sex to the chick cause it's sick."

"Umm. . . yeah. Basically."

"Now how do we get this across to Phoenix without explaining anything?"

Fire Storm looked around a bit. Seeing, as I could probably tell, Phoenix was up by the registry desk. "I've got it." He said, "I'll unlock the basement door, and we'll both go downstairs. Phoenix will most likely blame herself for leaving the door unlocked, and you can excuse yourself by saying you were looking for the bathroom. I'll say I couldn't hear you because I was taking a shower. Then, to make sure you won't _talk_. . . we take you on a mission. Bada-bing, bada-boom. Got it?"

"Yeah. But, make sure to wet at least you upper body down. I used to pull stunts like this all the time and learned that the hard way."

"Hurry up!" I fell behind, but soon caught up to him at the door I didn't notice before.

Fire Storm inserted the key, flicked his wrist, and we went down into the basement.

Phoenix didn't come for a while, so Fire Storm decided to actually take a shower. I would have liked one right then, though I was becoming notorious for not bathing. Ironically, I do like showers. . . almost as much as the rain. But I never actually have time to take them. I'm a busy man, though don't recall doing much of anything lately besides drawing for my supper, watching television and starting to write a novel.

"What are you doing down here?"

Bingo. Time for the dramatics.

"I was. . . looking for the bathroom."

"Pheonix? Is someone down here?" Fire Storm yelled from inside the shower.

"It's not down here!"

"Oh? Is this place restricted or something?"

"Yes. . . and I seem to have left the door unlocked. . ."

"What are you doing?" Fire Storm came out of the washroom with a towel around his waist.

"What's so restricted about this place?"

"Er. . ." Phoenix tried to answer me, but couldn't think of anything off the top of her head.

"Can't tell you! It's a secret!"

"Does this have anything to do with it?" I held up a black leather jacket I found, "'Bail Enforcement'. What's that mean?"

Fire Storm raised his eyebrows as if to say, 'Good one!'

"I'm sorry." I fake apologized, "I probably should leave. . ."

"Now wait a minute. . ." Fire Storm fake scowled, " If you leave then you'll be asking your friends what 'Bail Enforcement' means, and when they ask why, you tell them about your trip down here, and at least one of them will be both smart enough to know it means 'Bounty Hunter' and stupid enough to break in here!"

"It means Bounty Hunter?"

"Oops. . ."

"Fire Storm!" Phoenix yelled.

"Well. . ." I continued, "Now that I know it, I guess I'll have to make an offer."

"What's that?"

"I get to go on the next mission with you, and I swear by my tail fire that I'll keep this between us."

"Umm. . . ." Phoenix had picked up her jacket from the table I left it on, "Well, you seem to be big enough. Do you know how to use a gun?"

"Absolutely."

"Alright."

"Woohoo!" I thrust my arms up into the air, which I brought instantly down when Fire Storm threw a spare uniform at me. "We leave in thirty minutes. Before you put those on, please please please take a shower. _I _can smell you a mile away."

Might as well.

"Spandex? You have got to be kidding me." I climbed into the back seat of the car. Luckily there wasn't _only _the spandex. It looks like a normal shirt under the leather jacket and blue jeans.

"I'm not the one to ask. . ." Fire Storm said prior to Phoenix getting in the driver's seat.

"Here's the situation:" Phoenix stated promptly, "There's five fugitives hiding in a warehouse on the other side of the city. There's a Rhydon hybrid, a Magmar hybrid, and a Lapras hybrid."

"The other two?" I asked.

"Humans, what else?"

"Humans?. . . oh yeah, them." I can be so disillusioned by New Me sometimes.

Phoenix looked at me strangely before starting the vehicle, "They're wanted for fraud, so things might not be too messy."

Fire Storm disagreed, "If they have a Magmar _and _a Rhydon hybrid on their side, there's probably a good reason."

"Either way, we'll need some really big guns, cause they're not going down without a good fight. And we're outnumbered." I said, "What's this gun?"

"That's a Zap Cannon 3000, and I have permanent dibs on it." Fire Storm said flatly, and took the gun.

"Rats. What's your second biggest gun?"

"There's quite a few back there. Keep looking."

I'm a connoisseur of guns. And swords, but guns are much more useful for combat when the objective is to win. None of these seemed to be real guns, just modified ones for shooting clay bullets, but they were guns nonetheless. I particularly liked the lock-and-load style shotgun one. And two longbarrel pistols, definitely. And a sniper rifle. But I really can't carry all of them. I have two holsters on my bet, and I need two hands to use the other guns. . .

I realized I had put my backpack in the car. So I just unlatched the belt on it and strapped that around my back, on which I mounted the sniper rifle. Then I just had a cunning thought. . .

"There it is." Phoenix parked two blocks away from the intended large box-storage facility. Fire Storm turned around to look in the back seat, "What are you doing?"

"T-shirt ninja." It was a thing I knew how to do. Make a ninja mask out of a black t-shirt. "I thought it would look more like a Tom Clancy novel based game this way."

"Oh, in case you ever come back to reality, this isn't a game."

"What? You think I'll get hurt or something?"

"More than likely than not."

"Come on. Punch me, right here." I pounded my chest.

"Let's just go!" Phoenix yelled. We all scrambled out of the car and down the block quickly.

"I'll go in first." I said, when Fire Storm stopped me, "You're not properly trained for this!"

"Neither are you." I mouthed so Phoenix couldn't hear. I went inside.

As most hideout warehouses are, this one had lots of big brown crates stacked in appropriate maze-like patterns on the sides, and a large corridor down the middle. I quickened my pace to get to the overseer's deck at the other end, and hoping all the meanwhile I wasn't being watched. It might have been very hard to miss me if I didn't have my neck flame covered by the mask and my tail flame by the. . . er, tights.

Quietly going up an old loose metal staircase is not an easy task to accomplish, but it was performed more or less haphazardly. No one was up in the office, though. I could see the entire blackness of the warehouse at night, which was a good or bad thing, depending on how you looked at it. There were five badguys in this warehouse, and I couldn't see one of them. Or I might. . . I set my shotgun down and took out the sniper gun.

The window creaked a little bit as I opened it, and it was a lot easier to see a whole lot of dark without the dust getting in the way. But the sniper had a night vision function on it, so I propped it on the sill and started my scanning.

I saw Fire Storm and Phoenix, who didn't seem to have much trouble getting around in the dark, (I wish my hearing was about as good as theirs. . .) carefully checking every corridor. The second anyone of us fired a gun, our presence would be made known.

Unless. . . they already knew we were here.

They were con artists, after all, or at least the ringleader was. He wouldn't be stupid enough to hide in a warehouse and hope to not get caught. He has a plan of some sort. . .

And then I saw one of them. The Rhydon hybrid, standing on a stack of crated, waiting for Fire Storm and Phoenix to come up to him. My first instinct was to shoot, but that wasn't going to help any, especially since the tranquilizers weren't going to pierce his hide.

My next instinct was to shotgun, but I wouldn't be able to find him again without the scope. SO there had to be a catch.

Well, Rhydon's senses are all dulled because of its thick armor, so there was not chance in a million that he was doing this by himself. Someone faster was going to signal him, and someone who could signal without too much noise. That ruled out the Lapras hybrid, so it was either of the humans or the Magmar. Just finding them might be a little tough.

There's one. He was one of the humans, in the typical theif black outfit. Time to break the silence. . . it was driving me nuts.

KTHAP! Went the rifle. Almost as soon as I shot the lights went on.

What the. . .?

"They're here, boys!"

The Rhydon hybrid abandoned the plan A and moved onto B, which did not involve the crates.

"Bail Enforcement! Put you hands in the air!" The Lapras hybrid, the Rhydon hybrid, and the other human were standing out in the large corridor where Fire Storm and Phoenix were.

Where was the Magmar hybrid?

Out of nowhere, the intended perpetrator appeared from behind and kicked Fire Storm in the back. I aimed my rifle. . .

No good. Phoenix had to dive for cover as the other three started shooting. And Fire Storm was too close to the Magmar for me to shoot. Phoenix was probably having the same problem.

If I could stop the other three, Fire Storm would have a much easier time bringing down the Magmar. But if I didn't get all of them quickly enough, _I'd_ be dead, too.

I've read mysteries like this before. There's something I probably hadn't thought of. I withdrew the Sniper and took out my shotgun. What to shoot?

Cunning thought. I chanced to glance at the print on the many crates. The bottom said _packing peanuts _and the top said _refrigerator _(What a novel way of stacking.). And they were perpendicular with the three-man team in question.

I pointed the crosshairs at the uppermost portion on the bottom crate and filled all my hope on the idea that the box was weak enough for clay to break through. Everything rested on this one shot.

I was getting scared. I might have rather kamikaze my way down there instead, because they didn't see me. But I was also scared to die.

And if this one shot didn't work, I would have. I couldn't have even been able to subdue them afterwards, or had a chance. There was always the sniper. . .

No. It's all or nothing.

I squeezed the trigger.

. . . I might have passed out then from fear of failure.

New me, on the other hand, wasn't going to have any of that. I was conscious to witness the entire rest of the event. I say witness, because I wasn't there. Well, I was _there_, but it wasn't me moving my body. I was kinda looking at myself from the outside. And everything went fast.

The box falling. . .

The human dodging. . .

Fire Storm subduing the Magmar hybrid. . .

Me pulling out both pistols. . . rushing down the steps. . .

Capturing the human. . .

The law enforcement officers coming. . .

I didn't feel my body until after it all transpired. That was the best part. . . and I got to see it all like a movie. The really slow part at the end where slow piano music is playing where they show multiple slow-motion images of what happens, only none of us got hurt in it.

"Good job." Fire Storm said to me, "If I ever figure out how I got this job in the first place, I'll let you know."

"Actually. . ." I said, "That was enough."

"Really?"

"For the week."

We both stared at each other, until Fire Storm finally chuckled.

I might not mind a job like that. But where does that leave my plans to own a comic book shop? There's not enough time in this world for everything. Maybe if life were really perfect. But where was the fun in perfect?

----

Ugh. Please please please send me your submissions for _Final Fantasy: The Last Hero_ so I might be able to get started on it before the summer ends. See my author bio for more details. Until next time, Ciao!


	3. The Contestant

Chapter three! Chapter three! Oh can it be? This take place between chapter four and five of FireHybrid's Intertwine Dreams.

Chapter 3

The Contestant

Being seven feet tall, most doors are a head too short for a person of my stature. Nevertheless, I prefer this form because it's what I wanted anyway.

It even has a positive effect on other people too. I walked into a Subway restaurant one fine day, and the server there was six foot three. He now probably _used _to think he was tall. But that was nothing compared to when I said to him, "I'll take a foot long Cold Cut Trio with everything on it, a foot long Spicy Italian with everything on it, a foot long Subway Club with everything on it, and a large Cherry Coke."

He looked at me in the most peculiar manner. "Would you like a bag for that?"

"No, I'll be eating it here. And be sure to load them with bell peppers."

He looked at me funny again as he rang up my meal on the register. "Bag of Cool Ranch Doritos too, if you don't mind." I can't eat a sandwich without chips.

"That'll be $19.87. . ."

"What's with inflation these days. . ." I monotony said as I pulled out my wallet, "Break a hundred? No wait. . . I think I have enough change. . ."

I just love doing things like that.

I might not have been able to eat that much if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a fire type (Those flames take a lot of energy) and for the fact that I've probably slept a total of ten hours last week. But it all adds up to the fact that I use these things to my advantage, like scaring people.

Taking my order, I moved to the window seat, because I have this habit of staring outside during the daytime.

I secretly hope that there would be something that could crush my ego, big as it is. I mean, I have a good reason for it. I can draw, write, sing, act, do comedy, fight, play games, and so on. And to boot, I have this weird thing going on with my metabolism that, as I've told several times before, I can stay up until three in the morning and get out of bed by five.

Not that I actually sleep in a bed. Just a couch. I might burn the house down otherwise if I had anything remotely close to a nightmare.

But that's the thing. I don't think I'm scared of anything anymore. Having the vigilance of a brick house may be useful, but it's a thing of life that one has to be scared. A few weeks ago during my last bout with Fire Storm, I think I did get scared. I look back on it and remember almost everything, except the last part, which I only kinda remember.

That might be my only fear, that of dying in obscurity. Living past forty would be nice, but you can't have everything. Still, I intend on living forever. So far, so good.

Far be it from me to be perfect, though. Sometimes I wish I had more people skills. As if people were worth developing skills for. And I still can't play 'real' sports, as if that were a bother. I don't need everything people expect of me. It's a lot more fun to excel in things they don't. That way you always impress them, even by your failures.

But enough about me. You're probably expecting some action right about now.

I was finishing up my last sandwich, and put my trash in the waste bin. Still Cherry Coke in hand, I walked outside and was deciding what to do next. It was about one in the afternoon, a weekday. I once again thanked whatever is there now that I didn't have to go to school anymore. But life was now one day to the next. I needed some long-lasting form of entertainment. I had considered pokémon training, but I didn't want to get into that just yet. No, right now I wanted to do something challenging and fun.

And that's when it hit me.

I mean, it _literally _hit me. The wind blew a loose flier onto my face. I had the notion to read it:

__

VIDEO GAME TOURNAMENT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 2001, 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM

BIZ ARCADE

120 MAIN STREET, MANILLA CITY

$1,000 FIRST PRIZE

$500 SECOND PRIZE

$250 THIRD PRIZE

I must tell you, I might have been in heaven right then. Manila City? I had no clue as to where that was. I had to go back to Xavier's to find out.

Well, not only find out, but also to leave him a note as to tell him were I'd be tomorrow. Manila City was two days _straight_ walking distance _as the murkrow flies_. (I've been in the lingo of using the new world a little bit.) Thus said I couldn't do that and get there on time. So it was about time to blow some of my savings and rent a motorcycle.

Not a huge chunk, but a pretty decent one for a two-day rental. But it might be worth it if I could get my hands of first or second prize.

And I'm going to tell you right off bat, I'm not going to tell you about my exploits in the tournament. That would be exciting only to me. _If_, that is, it actually took place.

I arrived in Manila City around noon. I searched for a couple minutes for the arcade on Main Street. Seeing as how it was a fairly large and new arcade, it was time for me to go get some ice cream. A shop just down the road reminded me of a town I used to live in, one that's main street was still stuck in the 1940's. The entire street reminded me of that, except for the arcade.

And for some reason, that's what worried me.

Manila City is a small town. The arcade is large and new. How did the owner expect to make money, especially flinging off _that _much in a promotion?

How many people were honestly going to show up? Two hours before a big contest, everyone that's going to be there usually is. But no one was in the arcade. Something was wrong. . . _but what?_

I rode my motorcycle back up the street the arcade to get another look at it. The thing must have only been built in the last month or sooner. And that's what really worried me.

Now, I'm not saying I'm stupid, but that was a call for action if I ever saw one. I just _had_ to walk in there defiantly. As I was putting my rental in a place where it wouldn't get destroyed, I thought maybe there was an explanation to all of this. Maybe something weird wasn't going on.

Shame I was right the first time.

"You here for the tournament?"

"Yeah. . . I am. . ."

"Please follow me into the back."

I passed right by the arcade machines, where it seemed that everything was operating normally. Nothing had to be wrong at all and I was just paranoid.

I barely stepped into the back room when something whacked across my neck. The sudden blow made me cringe, until I realized it almost tickled. I turned to look at who assaulted me.

It was a human. With a steel baseball bat. This dude was about my muscle mass when I was Old Me, and he was attempting to _hurt_ me?

"Mind explaining that?" I asked.

Another sharp blow across the neck.

This assailant, the man who lead me back here, actually had mass and was black, and wore some sort of secret agent suit and sunglasses. Or maybe a bodyguard suit. I asked him, "Am I in the wrong place? I thought I was supposed to be here, but I guess I'm too early or something. I'll leave if you want me too. . ."

He flashed a switchblade. Oh, now _that _was cheating. I kicked him where it counted, and then curled up both my fists and slammed him on the back while he was still keeling over. I'd been working out.

The scrawny dude looked terrified, and tried to attack me again. These humans and their silly toys. I kicked him once in the gut. I didn't want to _kill _him. . . just maim. He fell over on top of the other dude.

Now to find out what all the injury was about.

I looked around the immediate room to see if anything out of the ordinary stood anywhere. Down arcade machines. . . Change machine. . . fuse box. . . cardboard boxes. . . nothing. At least I saw nothing. There was a lone security camera in the corner of the storage room, above the only garbage can there. I was still being watched, it seemed.

A shot. I felt a hard prick in my back, after which I reflexively grabbed for and pulled out. What I found in my hand when I brought it back around was a syringe dart. Donphan tranquilizer. It was empty.

Everything started getting fuzzy, as I collapsed on the ground.

What was happening? I thought to myself. I could think straight again, that was a good thing. Not telling how long I was out. I could hear about five hundred voices yelling as a crowd. color started to form in front of my eyes, and I was in some sort of cage. The crown was a ways away still, and now I could hear the squeak of wheels turning. Then I could feel the unevenness of movement over rocky ground. I heard footsteps all around me.

The movement stopped. The wheels stopped. The footsteps stopped. I didn't dare move.

"This one's gave us a lota trouble. Took out Louie."

"What 'bout that stringae kid? The pok'amon traina that wanted t' 'move upwahd fast'?"

"'e'll live. Do we let that count as 'is payment?"

"Naw. He'll need to survahve next time. When he wakes up, make sure to tell him tha I's ain't lettin him fight no' lettin him sees his pok'amon until I's sees some results."

"Raight, boss. What'da we do with this dude?"

"Fight commin' up. Notify the guys."

My head was still throbbing, but I had to take a risk at asking a question. "Where am I?"

"Hey, that guy's still awake!"

"And this isn't any way to treat a guest."

"Yo, that dude from the ahce cream parlah said that you'd looked like you was big enough for one of ah fights."

"Fight?"

"Yeah, you's gonna be in our 'tournament' as a side show!"

That didn't sound too terribly exciting, so I faked a cough and said, "Come closer. . . I don't feel well. . ."

The man that wore a black trench coat stepped forward to look at me closer. In a matter of milliseconds, I reached through the bars and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him up against the cage. Some of the guys shouted out in general surprise. I jammed his neck across my arm as to pin him against the cage and cut off his windpipe.

"Listen here! I was here for the arcade tournament. I have no desire whatsoever to get myself killed in one of these underground rings."

"Not. . . your choice. You'd. . . need to appeal. . . to the Big Boss. . ."

"I'll break out of here on my own if you don't mind. . ."

I heard a shot, and another dart was buried in my fur. "Oh, now you really me ang. . ." My grip on his neck loosened up, until I collapsed to the ground.

"'e's pahfect." I heard before I went to sleep again.

I wondered how in the world they fit an entire stadium underground. It was a fairly large stadium, too, with a certain smell in the air like that of a Subway restaurant. Yeah, I was getting hungry. And now I had a massive headache from both tranquilizers and couldn't see straight otherwise. It didn't last long. My head still throbbed, but now I could see the stadium seats, consisting of well over three or four hundred people sitting in them.

The smell changed. It smelled sour, something I hadn't smelled before. The odor was unbearable, but it also didn't last long. Again, the smell changed and I recognized it immediately as alcohol.

What in the world was happening?

And now that I think about it, the world was kind of erratic and prone to change and I probably shouldn't be asking it those kinds of questions.

My vision cleared up now, and my hearing was getting sharper by the second.

". . . the person who defeats the Typhlosion hybrid will be given a five thousand dollar bonus. As usual, first come, first serve."

The cage opened, and I suspected they wanted me to get out. A fight. This wouldn't be all bad, now, would it?

I stepped out into a puddle of blood. This was very, very bad. But I had to maintain a look of I had at least some clue as to what was going on.

I noticed that they removed my shirt, which was probably for the better, as it was one of the nicer ones, and I really didn't feel like getting blood on it. I didn't particularly feel like bleeding at all, otherwise. Thus it began that the first volunteer was up. This guy had the air about him that said, 'you are so dead!'. A bell sounded, and the guy tossed his first pokéball, and in a flash of red light, out appeared Onix. This was not a match for sissies, it seemed. Right away the trainer called out to his Onix for a Fissure attack. And this was a _fast _fissure attack. The energy burst hit me straight on.

And I didn't feel a thing.

Six fights in, and another trainer stepped up. Twelve fights. Twenty-four. Sixty. This was going to go on forever, it seemed. Number sixty-one, the trainer had a water pokémon that was at least worth its salt. It's first hydro pump attack nicked me in the shoulder, and it stung like all get-out. But even then, I wasn't tired, I wasn't seriously injured, I was getting to be a better fighter by the minute, I was actually having fun and I secretly thanked them for dragging me down here.

But I had to get out. This had to stop. If, say right now, the police or FBI were to surround this place, I was going to be arrested along with everyone else. Even if this entire town was practically owned by this mafia thing, it was still highly likely. The place was very obviously new, considering that there wasn't an 'unbeatable trainer' yet, who might appear within six months and would probably be a long-haired prettyboy, but nobody was obviously that yet. At least that's what _should_ happen.

Sixty-one down. I probably should have shown up a lot later for an actual challenge, but it was starting to dawn on me that, since I have pokémon in my blood, I was born to fight. I've fought before this, but not nearly this extensively. Maybe sometime in the past I learned to fight. Something like my incredibly improved artistic abilities. But still, it seemed pretty cool.

I wondered if there was a way to measure my experience level.

Sixty-six up. The rush of battle was exhilarating, probably this side of orgasmic. And the thought crossed my mind that, since I technically was fifteen years old, how I evolved into a Typhlosion so quickly. This was a very good reason right here.

The crowd was starting to cheer for me. I was probably going to overextend my ego just in time for someone to kick my butt. As if that would happen.

I had to stop.

Number Sixty-seven. A Steelix. This might me slightly tougher, as these things have about the same endurance as a tank. Like me.

For this battle, I jumped and positioned myself in the space between its head and the rest of its body and hung on. For a second, the Steelix was trying to flick me off, but I waited for the moment that it would turn upside-down. I grabbed it by its horns (I never figured out what they actually are) and pulled. You might wonder how something this big can be taken down by any other pokémon, don't you? It's quite simple: Onix and Steelix are built all wrong. The muscle in their bodies are separated into each 'boulder', and each boulder is connected by ligament. Suffice to say, they are extremely flexible, being invertebrates. That makes it ten times easier to flip them. The other reason is that they don't have any actual footing on the ground, so they can't use any of their weight to their advantage unless they were actually under the ground.

That is what his trainer was trying to get him to do, use a Dig attack. The Steelix came up from under me, launching me sixty feet in the air. I was all fun, like a roller coaster might be. On the way back down, I grabbed the Steelix again for another flip.

The reward was raised to ten thousand dollars.

Battle Ninety-eight. The reward was raised to fifteen thousand dollars.

One hundred twenty. Twenty thousand dollars and a Master Ball.

But that was the last of the contestants. I walked back to the cage I had been stuck in earlier cage and grabbed my shirt, and walked out the arena gate.

The man who I grabbed forcibly earlier ran up to me. "A gift from the Big Boss." He said. He handed me the reward money and the Master Ball. "He gives you his best regards."

"Hmph. He could have invited me." I stuffed the incredibly large amount of cash into my wallet. "I'll be grateful this time, but if this happens again, none of you are going to ever walk out this gate again."

I walked out the gate, out of the arcade, and rode out of town. It was well past midnight now, but that didn't concern me. It was a wonderful feeling to let your baser instincts take hold.

But as I hard the police sirens behind me, I considered the fact that I was lucky enough to have stopped when I did.

----

Much longer than my usual chapter. But just wait till you see the fifth chapter of FireHybrid's Intertwine Dreams! You must be reading it for this to make any sense, so I probably don't need to tell you that!

And as it is, I have exactly no more characters for Final Fantasy: The Last Hero. C'mon, people! Look at my profile for more info!

Until next time, Ciao!


	4. The Lover

W00t! Longest chapter to date, on _anything_. Steamy romance ahead. ^_^ You've been warned.

The following has been approved by FireHybrid himself, just in case you wanted to know. Go read Chapter 5 of his Intertwine Dreams to make sense of this.

  


Chapter 4

The Lover

  


_I'm in the money. . . I'm in the money. . ._

Even though it had been a couple weeks since the previous chapter, I still couldn't get that song out of my head. Even just three days ago. . .

Mating week was over now, but I still remember it as if it were seared onto my brain. Especially when Phoenix tied me up in the basement of Xavier's house. I'm not very sure how she sedated me. . . I sleep rarely, am partially immune to drugging, and can shake off any blows to my body.

But I'm repeating myself and my somewhat-landlord. For the rest of that story, go read FireHybrids' _Intertwine Dreams_.

But currently, I was sitting in Xavier's living room just sketching some random objects for practice. It had been maybe months since I had drawn a single dragon. . . except for that dragonite girl that wanted her sketch. But that doesn't exactly count.

Xavier had been awful quiet the past few days. Something was on his mind, I could tell. And I thought I would eventually be able to figure out what it was, until the awesome twist on my life he gave to me right then.

"Hey, Rick."

"Hey."

"Listen. . . I'm not used to doing this, so here goes. . . how would you like to go on a date?"

I knew what he meant, but the line was too good to pass up. "Not with you, I hope."

"What? No!. . ." He he he. "Remember that Raichu Hybrid that was with you guys when Phoenix tied you guys up in the basement and you broke that door down?"

How could I forget that? That must've been the sweetest girl in the world. "The cute girl? Yeah, I remember her." _I CAN'T REMEMBER HER NAME FOR SOME REASON, THOUGH! How absolutely ironic._

"Yeah; how would you mind going on a date with her?"

And I was considering that her and 'date' were going to be two mutually exclusive events. I blinked. ". . . and she's willing to go too?"

He blinked as well, "Uh, yeah; would I ask you if she wasn't?"

My jaw dropped. My cute girl section of my brain, aka The Babble Like An Idiot section of my brain, was set off. "I'd. . . love. . . to. . ."

"Good. . . before you go, though, there's some stuff you should know about her."

I was barely paying attention, staring into some space right behind Xavier. "Yeah. . . go on. . ."

"She's 16, a junior in my high school. . ." He paused for a second.

"Date. . . going. . . me. . ."

"Uh. . . Rick? Hello? You still with me?"

Well, of course I was. "Yeah. Date. Me. Cute girl. Raichel. 16. Junior in High school. . ." High school. . . who needs it?

"O.K. . . listen, she's kinda special to me, so I just gotta ask you to make sure you don't do something to upset her or anything. She's in a tender state at the moment. . ."

The word 'tender' brought me to full attention lightning fast. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. . . what kind of 'tender state'?"

"It's. . . a really, REALLY long story. . ."

"As long as it's not easily explained in some sort of medical term, I'm okay with it."

"Not sure there's a medical term for, 'Telling your dream girl that you come from a world where she was your only female companion until you came to this world and she was replaced from another girl from that world. . . at' "

"Oh. Is that all."

"Yeah, that's about the sum of it. . ."

"I might be surprised by that, but too much weird stuff has already happened."

"You think?. . . Anyway, she's really lonely now, and I still care about her. . ."

Again, click. "You still care about her?"

"That's why I'm doing this, for her and my sake."

_And my sake._

"It was either you or Bob, and I really don't trust him with a pencil. . ."

". . . much less a former unknown girlfriend. Right. Me either." With any luck, I am currently not in his same position. And considering I was going on a _date_ with a _cute girl_. . . well!

"Now there's a few things that you might need to know about her. . ."

"What movies does she like?"

"Uhm. . . she doesn't like chick flicks, if that's what you're asking, but. . ."

"Good! What movies are playing?"

Xavier handed me the newspaper. As I read through the pages for some movies, I only caught a hint of what he was trying to tell me.

Raichel's parent's didn't like hybrids, even though she was one. I wonder how that happened. Xavier was trying to explain it to me, but I only caught a little wind of it, namely 'blood' and 'psychic attack'.

"The Musketeer is still playing. . ." I murmured to myself. "So. . . she really likes me?"

"That's what I said."

"Well all this needs careful planning and consideration! Dinner movie! Movie dinner! Must choose a restaurant!"

"Will you slow down. . ." I was frantic about now, so I could understand, "The date is for tomorrow night, if you want. Everything is up to you, though."

"Cool. . . I might want to wear that tight black T that shows off my abs. . . You know, I haven't been planning to see thirteen ghosts, but it might be a good movie, so maybe. . . I also need to take a shower. . . possibly shave. . ."

"Um, Rick? You don't have facial hair."

"I _know_ that. You think I don't know that? I just want everything to be _perfect_. And I only have. . ." I checked the clock on the wall, "THIRTY-SIX HOURS TO GET READY!"

"Calm down!"

"I will! I will. . ." Deep breaths. Deep breaths. "I'll go take a shower and do a couple hundred push ups. . ." I wandered in the direction of the bathroom.

"Good! You do that!" he called after me.

  


I didn't take a shower. I took a _bath_. An ice cold bath. With lots of soap bubbles. I needed to take my mind off of things for a while.

The water got very warm quickly because of my body heat, but I didn't notice. I just stared off into space for a while and thought about what all the possibilities were with a girlfriend.

That made the water even hotter.

I forced myself to stop thinking about it. We hadn't even met for five minutes that day. . .

I drained the bathtub and took a cold shower. I needed something really, really cold, fast. But I still couldn't stop.

I shut off the water and did six hundred push ups on the bathroom floor. I still couldn't stop thinking about her.

_I – HAVE – TO – STOP – THINKING – ABOUT – HER!_

__Thirty-five hours left. I was never going to make it.

  


Xavier was very serious about this entire date thing, if for some reason or another. He lent me the car so I didn't spend an hour walking anywhere. He had directions to her house, and even reiterated what he said about treating her well. I, meanwhile, was busy trying to figure out directions to the restraunt and movie theater.

Even then, it started out quite awkward.

"Hello, Rai," I said to her as I opened up the passesger door for her to get in.

"Hello, Rick," She responded as she got in, "How are you?"

I pulled the clutch into gear. "I'm doing well, how bout you?"

"As good as I can be I suppose."

_Reeeally awkward._ "Oh. Um. . ."

"Well, after what happened with Fire Storm, and what he told me... I just need to relax."

_What, indeed. . ._I just sighed. Nothing worth conversing then could come to mind. I couldn't even think of a subject to change to.

"So. . . Fire Storm tells me you're an artist?"

Whew. . . "Yeah. . . yeah I am. I try to make a living off of it."

"Sounds nice. I might like to see some sometime... if you don't mind."

"Oh, no. . . I never mind. Usually."

"Thanks... you a trainer?"

"Not yet. I plan to be, though."

She nodded. "That nice. I've been thinking about starting again myself."

That phrase right there just shot off a bullet in my head. _Rick, look at yourself. A few months ago this conversation would seem strange to you. You're talking right now to a spinoff of a popular video game (a really hot one at that) about an occupation or hobby that never should have existed that involves fantastic creatures of said game._

_Are you losing your sense of wonder?_

I was ashamed of myself. I was starting at my paws, and thinking about how quickly I got used to it all. . .

"Rick?" Rai was very obviously concerned, "You okay?"

"Sorry. . . you just got me thinking again. . ."

"Oh. . . about what, if you don't mind me asking."

_How much does she know. . ? _I sighed. "I'm. . . not sure if I can tell you. . ."

"Oh. . . well, it's okay if you can't."

I looked down at my paws again.

Rai tried to change the subject, "What are we going to see, again, tonight?"

"Thirteen Ghosts. But that's later. . . I wanted to take you to a semi-fancy restaurant. . ."

"Sounds nice. What's the name of the place?"

"All I know is that it's Mexican. Chevy's, I think. . ." I _have _been there before. The name always seems to slip my mind.

"Mexican sounds nice."

"I just hope it's spicy." My main reason why Taco Bell is not Mexican. You cannot have Mexican without spicy. Rai nodded in agreement with me. I looked, up and the restraunt was in view. I must have spaced out for longer than I knew. . .

I pulled into the restaurant. "I'll pay for absolutely everything, so don't worry about price."

"Oh. . ." She looked surprised. "Thanks. . . are you sure? I can pay for myself."

_Stupid pent up guilt of mine, always popping up when I don't need it. What you do for Rick!_ I really had more than enough money for both of us to live comfortably on for the next ten years. . . "I have more money than I know what to do with right now, so don't worry about me." I got out and opened up her door for her.

She smiled, and I think if she didn't have a face full of fur, she would have blushed. "A gentleman, I see."

_Not usually. But it's your night. . . _"Well I try. . ."

We walked into the restaurant together. After a brief chat with the waiter, I turned to Rai, "We're lucky. There's a table open right now."

"Nice timing, I guess."

We walked, again, together to the table. I only ordered water, I fondly remembered having only soda to wash down the food with. . . it's not pleasant.

Rai sat across from me, and looked around the place. "This is a nice place."

"I thought you might like it." The waiter brought us our complimentary basket of chips and little bowl of incredibly hot salsa.

Rai thanked the waiter, and took a little sniff of them. "Smells good."

I took a bite. The salsa was a _lot_ spicier than I remembered. . . it knocked the rest of my wind out of me. "Spicy enough. . ."

Rai took a chip herself. "Wow, yeah. . ."

I picked up the menu and looked for the thing that sounded like it tasted the best. "So Xavier tells me you're in Junior Hi. . Ah, er, a Junior in high school." Almost slipped up there. . .

"Yes, I'm in the same grade as Xavier."

School. Silly people and their pointless mathematics and social studies. . .

"Are you still in school?"

I choked. "Well. . . I. . . er. . . I don't. . ." I didn't have a response ready for that. I don't think I could've if my life depended on it.

"Oh. . ." She was obviously very surprised, "It's alright. It doesn't really matter; you seem like a smart guy as it is."

Still, I felt as though I was disappointing her, "But what I meant to say. . . Um. . ." I was frustrated with myself, so I shifted the topic, "How much has Xavier told you about me?"

"A little. He told me what you like, where you came from; that sort of thing."

"Where I came from? What did he say about where I came from?" Hopefully, for both our sakes, I didn't have to do an elaborate cover up right now.

"He said you came from a van on the side of the road. He couldn't remember much else. . ."

"At least he was truthful. . ." _Not to mention blunt._

"Maybe you could tell me a little more?"

I intended to, but the waiter dude came by and took our orders. He was actually quite polite, considering we were both hybrids.

"So. . . What else do you like besides art?"

"Oh, various things. And um. . . I don't really do all that much. I play video games all day, and try to find something to do that doesn't bore me out of my skull. . . I took to exercising a lot recently."

"Sounds like a good life to me."

"But I really want to do something with my life. . ." According to me, when you struck thirty you were officially old and you wasted your life, you pathetic fool you.

"I understand that, but maybe you should enjoy what you have while you can." True. . . I did consider the fact that's that what I usually wanted to do all day anyway while I was still in school. . .

"Yeah. . ." I sighed. I had to let her know soon. . . I hate having awkwardness build up like that. . .

"What's up?" She was so very concerned about me. . .

"I'm not sure if I know how to tell you this exactly. . ."

"Just say it and get if off your chest; I promise I won't get mad if you're worried about that."

"I. . . um. . . You know how Xavier told you I came from a van on the roadside?"

"Yes."

"I don't. . . remember anything before that. . ."

"Oh... you mean you don't anything else that's happened here?"

"No, I mean. . . really. I woke up in a van one day. I don't remember anything before that." Well, I _thought_ she misunderstood. . .

"You mean, everything? Even your life in the Shadow World?"

I knew that term. _I knew that term_. . . "Shadow world. . . Xavier told you?"

"Yes; that's why we're just friends again; his relationship with Serena back there... didn't he tell you that?"

_Well you just did right now, thanks a lot. . . _"No, he didn't. . ."

"I'm surprised. He said he would... might've forgotten."

"He really might have. I might not have been paying a lot of attention. . ." At least everything that was slightly confusing fell into place. . .

"I see. . ." Rai nibbled on another chip.

"So he really did tell you everything."

"Yeah; he felt I deserved to know why he was breaking up with me."

_ALERT! Avoid the subject!_ "I really didn't want to bring it up. . ."

"Oh. . ." She looked a little embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't meant to either. . ."

"I do, however, remember everything that happened in the Shadow World, if you wanted to know. . . I don't prefer the term 'Shadow World', though. I always think in my mind 'Old World'."

"I see. I'm just used to Xavier saying it; sorry. . ."

_Again with the sorry. . ._"No, it's no problem. That's why I told you right now."

"Okay; thanks. . ." She paused.

I leaned forward on the table, the silence becoming less awkward between us. . . or it might have become moreso. . . I was just looking at her beautiful amber eyes. . .

The waiter interrupted me, and delivered the food. Rai thanked him.

"I'm sorry, was I staring?"

"Not that I noticed. . ."

"Okay. I hate to be awkward. . ." I took a bite from my food.

Rai did as well. "This is good, how's yours?"

"Spicy. . ." I coughed to one side, idly emitting a small flare. I quickly snapped my mouth shut and put a paw over it.

"You okay?"

"Quite spicy, I might say. . ."

"I noticed. . . hope I don't start burping fire.

I wish I had something clever to say then. But I didn't. I just laughed a little. Rai smiled.

She didn't eat as fast as I did. I like to eat, and usually as much as I can shove down my throat before it all catches up with me. "This stuff is delicious. . . I might want to come back a lot more often."

"Same here."

I might have paused my eating right then, because I just looked up and caught a glint of the overlights in Rai's eye. . . 

I blinked. "I was staring. I know I was staring. . ."

"Were you? I didn't notice."

"No, I was staring, I know it."

She shrugged. "If you say so, Rick."

I blinked, then shook my head. "Um. . . sorry." I went back to eating.

She smiled and looked at me.

_Oh. . . duh. _She knew I was staring at her. . . and she was staring back the entire time. . . So I politely just spaced out into the beauty of her eyes. . .

"Rick. . . I hope you don't mind me saying this, but. . ." She looked down.

I blinked back. "What?"

"You're. . . pretty cute. . ."

I was only a little surprised. Really. Okay, I was quite surprised. "Um. . . You're. . . absolutely beautiful. . ." _I think I overdid it. . ._

She blushed. At least I think she did. "You really think so?"

"Absolutely."

She just sat there, contemplating that for a moment, then leaned across the table and _kissed me on the cheek_. Make a note. "Thanks. . ." She said.

It has been said many times your first kiss, that it usually isn't the best you'll ever have. That technically did not count as a kiss, but as far as I was concerned, I could die happy.

Rai was watching my reaction, which was probably quite humorous.

I coughed slightly and blinked. "No one's. . . ever kissed me before. . ."

"Did. . . you like it?"

"Y. . . Y-y. . . Y-yeah. . ." I brought a paw up to the cheek where she kissed me if for nothing else than effect.

"I'm glad. . . I don't know. There's just something about you. . . I feel really attracted to you."

I ran out of everything at that point. There was nothing I could say. That didn't mean I didn't try. "I. . . I, uh. . ."

"You okay, Rick? You look like your gonna pass out."

"I don't know what to say. . ."

She smiled. "If I knew this is how you'd react, I probably wouldn't have have done that."

Perish the thought. "No no, It's okay. . . I liked it a lot. . ."

"I'm glad. . ." She idly looked at me again. I said nothing, just looked at her face again. . . time seeming to be no object. . .

Time. _Time!_

"The movie is starting in twenty minutes!"

She snapped out of it. "Huh? Oh; Okay. . . We'd better get going then."

I hastily paid the bill at the front desk, but I was still looking at Rai the entire time. All the way out to the car. . .

I only broke eye contact when I opened the door for her. She thanked me, and I stepped around the the driver's side, got in an started the car. "I really meant to tell you this earlier. . ."

"Tell me what?"

"When Xavier told me I was going on a date with you, I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Oh. . . really?" She sounded a little embarrassed, but awfully pleased.

"Really. You were plastered into the walls of my head, and as much as I tried to think about other things, I couldn't stop."

She paused before she spoke again. "It's funny; I felt the same way when Xavier described you... you sounded so mature and nice. . ."

I parked the car in the movie theater parking lot and shut off the engine, but looked at the clock before doing so. "We have about ten minutes to kill. . ."

She smiled. "Any ideas?. . ."

"Well, I don't want to be too forward. . ."

She kissed me on the cheek again. "It's okay; really. . ." Pause. "You're very handsome. . ."

I got the nerve up to kiss her back. "Thank you. . ."

She smiled, holding one of my hands. "That felt nice. . ."

"Well then. . ." I kissed her again.

She took hold of my other hand, and then kissed me lightly on the lips.

This was all very new to me, but I was certain I liked it. I kissed her back on the lips, for a little longer.

Rai let out a little moan of pleasure. "Rick. . ."

"What?" I kissed her again.

She slowly rubbed up and down my bare arms, "I really like you. . ."

"Same here. . ."

She kissed me again, slowly opening her mouth to mine, so I decided to do the same, to lock a kiss. She placed her hands on my shoulders to steady herself, and kissed back a little harder. I crossed my arms behind her back and leaned against her, and in response she moaned a little louder and pressed her body against mine, while wrapping her arms about my neck.

Knowing myself, I had to stop this for even a little while to tell her, "So this is heaven. . ." And immediately went back to kissing.

"You smell. . . good. . . strong. . ." Rai said between kisses.

"I might even go. . . so far as to say. . . I love you. . ."

"Same. . . here. . ." She moved her hands around my back and felt the muscles I worked so hard on developing.

"Mmm. . .That feels nice. . ."

Rai tried climbing into my seat with me, while we were still kissing and holding each other. . . I told her "Move as far as you want. . ."

"Thank you. . ." She replied. She practically fell onto me, kissing and hugging, and rubbing slowly lower on my back.

"This is even nicer. . ." Kiss again.

"Rick. . ." Kiss. "More. . ." Kiss.

"We're probably" Kiss. "Missing that movie by now. . .

Rai pulled away, smiling, "I'm not missing it. . ."

"I never wanted to see it anyway." I pulled her back for another, you guessed it, kiss.

She was obviously ready to go much farther, slowly rubbing at my chest, while I moved my paws lower, to rub the back of her legs. I leaned forward into the kissing.

_This is so absolutely absorbing. . ._

Rai moved her hand a little awkwardly down the front of my body, feeling and examining it.

"I've been working on those abs." Again, kiss.

She kissed back harder. "I can feel it. . ."

I ran a hand down to the side of the seat and flipped up the lever, lowering the seat back. "Let's get a little more comfortable. . ."

Rai spoke between kisses again, "Rick. . . I've never. . . desired someone. . . as much. . . As I do you. . ."

"Are you sure? . . . I'm willing. . . to go as. . . far as you want. . ."

She kept kissing me, working her hands under my shirt, rubbing through my stomach fur, moaning pleasurably when she felt my chiseled stomach. As she slowly worked her way up, I stopped kissing her, and just leaned back to feel her hands rub there. . .

She pulled back, watching my reaction. "You like?"

"Yeah. . . keep going. . ."

She moved her other paw up in there to get more feeling going.

"Oooh. . ." I closed my eyes and sighed.

She started to massage my chest, smiling as she watched me enjoy this.

I collected up the nerve to do the same for her. . . I lifted a paw up and slid it under the back of her shirt, rubbing.

"Chu. . ." She sighed happily.

_That was so cute. . ._ I rubbed up to her shoulder blades, pressing her body against me again.

She slid her arms out from between us, and started to lift my shirt, and started kissing me again. I didn't stop her. I just took the rest of the shirt off when she oulled it up to my armpits. . .

"That feels a lot better. . ." In more ways than one. That T was a little to tight. . .

"I agree. . ." She worked her hands behind me, rubbing my back again.

"Mmmm. . ." I brought my paws around her again. She nuzzled her nose to my neck. "We must do this more often. . ." I continued.

"Definitely. . ." Rai started to wrap her tail around my waist.

"Tails are a peculiar thing. . . I wish I had one."

She kissed me again. "We'll share mine."

"Sounds like a plan." Kiss again.

She kissed back, "Do more, Rick. . ."

"How much more is there?" Kiss.

"As far as you want. . ." And she knocked me farther into my seat with another kiss.

I mmphed at it, "Using my own words against me, I see. . ." _As far as I want. . ._ I started to lift up her shirt. She pulled away for a second so I could get it off. "Much better. . ." I said, eying her pearl white bra.

"Much. . ." She replied. I pulled her back for another kiss.

This time she obviously wanted to go french style. . . I complied, letting my tongue into her mouth. She felt all around mine, and all around the inside of my mouth. I understood what made it so fun, now. . . She moaned into my mouth, enjoying every minute. I ran my paws up her bare back. She stroked the back of my head.

_I never want this to end. . ._

I ran a finger along her bra strap. . . hers along the waist of my pants. . .

_I'm in paradise. . . and Rai is right behind me. . ._

__I pawfingered the clip on her bra. . . waiting. . .

_I think I'm about to lose my virginity. . ._

__She slowly started to unbutton my pants. . .

_Out of all the days in the year. . ._

_Days. . .year. . ._

_Wait a minute. . ._

_WAIT A MINUTE!_

__The shocked look on my face was very obvious, even to me. "Waitwaitwaitwait! . . . I just remembered something. . ."

She stopped and looked up at me. "What?"

I double checked. "Monday. . . Tuesday. . . It's still Mating Week. . ."

"It is? . . ." She blinked, as though she were trying to focus on something, "Yeah. . . geez; I don't think I took my medicine before I left. . ."

I looked down at her shirtless body. "I'll say. . ."

"Oh!" She looked embarrassed, "Sorry. . ."

"This was entirely my fault. . . I should have kept track better. . ."

"No no; I'm as much to blame. . ." She took her shirt and put it back on, "We'd better stop before something happens. . ."

"Yeah. . . something highly illegal. . ." I pulled my shirt back on as well.

She clambered off me back into her own seat, a little too embarrassed to say anything.

I lifted my seat back up. ". . . I'm sorry. . ."

She shook her head. "I think we're equally at fault here. . . I should probably go home and take my medicine before that happens again. . ."

I started the car, and drove out of the parking lot. Awkward silence followed.

". . . you probably hate me. . ." I admitted.

Rai shook her head, "No; it's not your fault. . . I should've remembered too."

". . . Well I want to let you know. . . back there when I said I loved you. . . I meant it."

She said a little embarrassed, "Same here. . ."

I wry smile spread across my face. "So. . . you wouldn't mind going out again sometime?"

She smiled again, finally calming down. "Not at all. . ."

"How about next week, then? Same time and place?"

"Sounds good."

I sighed in relief.

_Another five minutes. . ._

"It's funny how things happen the way they do. . . five more minutes and my life could've changed all the way around. . ."

She nodded in agreement, "Me too. . ."

That oddly reminded me about how I came across the $20,000. . . "Not the first time it happened, though. . ."

She looked confused. "Really? Mind sharing?"

"It's actually quite a long story. . ."

  


  


Yaaay! And um. . . Send me Fianl Fantasy: The Last Hero characters before I start writing the story. . . OH FOR THE LOVE OF. . . Go ahead and send them in at any point in the story. Go ahead. I don't care.

Next time on Vagabond: I said it over and over again. . . Time to start that Pokémon training!


	5. The Trainer

And hark! The Fifth chapter is up so soon! I didn't have to wait for FireHybrid to finish his next chapter for this one, which takes place the second week of December. So you should imagine snow on the ground. . . or something. I don't actually live in New York. But as I promised, I start pokémon training. Enjoy!

  


Chapter 5

The Trainer

  


_THWACK!_

"Are you okay?!" Nurse Joy shouted from the counter, as I hit my head absentmindedly on the Pokémon Center's doorway.

"Okay of what? . . . oh. . . that thing. . ." I didn't feel anything. "I guess so. . ." I didn't even remember where I hit my head, so I rubbed it randomly.

I was here for a Trainer's License. My mind wandered for the brief second it took me to step through the automatic doors, so that's why I hit my head. Your mind would start to wander as often as mine if you had a girlfriend like Rai.

"I uh. . . want to apply for a Pokémon Trainer's License. . ."

"Alright, I'll need you to fill out this form, with proof of identification. . ."

"Right here." I took out my wallet and showed her my driver's license. She handed a sheet of paper to me. I unhooked a pen from the table and started filling the form out.

"You'll need to take a physical and few tests after that. . ."

_Name. Rick Griffin. . . _I looked at the name on my driver's license again. It said Rick P. Griffin. I wondered what the P. stood for. . .

"There's a ten dollar fee for the cost of the pokédex and six poké balls, two dollars for every additional poké ball. . ."

_Address. Aw crap. . . I feel as though I'm going to say that a lot on this questionnaire. . ._

"You'll get a starter pokémon, of course. Your choice. . ."

_Social Security Number_. I'm not telling anyone reading this. . .

"There's a lot of stranded pokémon we keep here. . . you can choose form those if you like. . ."

_Age. Fiftee. . . er, Twenty-one. _"Done." I handed Nurse Joy the form, and she signed something on the bottom. "Follow me. . ."

  


I hate physicals. I like tests, however. I guess it was a mediocre experience, all in all.

"Do you want to pick from. . ."

"You have any Farfetch'd?"

Joy blinked in surprise. "Um. . . yes, I believe we do have at least one somewhere. . ."

"I'll take it."

Joy punched something onto the computer. "Yes we have one available. . . I'm afraid we don't have much on the circumstances involving it's abandonment. . .

"That's okay. I'll take it anyway."

She punched a few numbers into the machine, then turned to a device near the back of the desk area. . . I think it was the poké ball transfer device, and she flicked a switch. In that oddly familiar red neon light, a poké ball materialized on the holder in the middle. I always wondered how they do that. . .

"Here he is. . ." Joy held up the red-and-white ball and pressed the switch on it, and in the Amazing Red Light of Glory and Such, on the desk appeared the small bird I had always wanted to see.

"Oh. . . hello. You must be my new trainer. . ." Though a Farfetch'd, he spoke in very clear and concise tones, usually in a down-trodden depressed way. His attack stick was fairly un-battered, and he didn't seem to have seen very many battles at all. But none of these issues were addressed at first hand.

"Aww! You're so cute!" I said, holing the vowel on 'cute, and I hugged him. I never saw a Farfetch'd before in my life, much of which I can only account for a few months anyway.

"I. . . beg your pardon. . ."

"Whoops. Sorry bout that, bud." I think I hugged him a bit too hard.

Joy butted in, "Here's your pokédex, and an additional five poké balls. There's material on the Pokémon League in the lounge area."

"Thank you. C'mon, Farfetch'd."

  


We sat in the lounge, somewhere near the children's area, in a red chair of some sort, at a table. The Farfetch'd was very willing to go with me. He seemed to have a sense of duty of some sort or another, and it made me wonder a bit about who his last trainer was. . .

"Did your last trainer give you a name?" I asked him.

"No. . . she just called me Farfetch'd. . . Is that a problem?"

"No. . . no. I just would prefer to give all my pokémon names. They're permanent things, I don't want to inadvertently name you something I'll regret later. . ." _I would like to name them all after a theme of some sort. . . it would make it easy to remember if I were to even get up to twenty or so. . . aha!_ "Your name will now be. . . Cecil."

"Cecil?"

"The hero of the video game Final Fantasy IV."

"Well. . . my former trainer wasn't to big on video games. . ."

"Who was she?" I felt I could ask him now.

"I don't remember her name. . . but she abandoned me about last month I think. . . she had me for three weeks and decided I wasn't worth keeping."

Right now I felt very, very, sorry for trainers who couldn't talk to their pokémon directly. I hugged him. I don't know why. It felt like the right thing to do. . .

"Now if I can ask you a question. . ." He was a very curious one, even though he seemed to be quite disciplined, "You seem to be quite a big, strong guy, not to mention a Typhlosion hybrid. . . why do you want to train pokémon?"

"I was bored. I have too much free time on my hands."

"Do you have a job or anything?"

"I don't need one. I have $400 in my wallet right now and another $19,200 at home. . . or rather Xavier's home. . ."

"Who is Xavier?"

"One of my friends. I don't live anywhere in particular, and I usually stay at his house. Like maybe nintey five percent of the time. . ."

"Oh. Alright."

"Could you describe your former trainer?"

"Not to clearly. . . when you're inside a poké ball for a month, you tend to forget a lot of things. . ."

This guy was just absolutely pulling every one of my heartstrings. . . Cecil _was_ a good name for him. . .

"Rick!"

"Rai!" I hadn't seen her in a long time. . . at least for a day.

She came over and sat down beside me. "You've already got through with the exams, I see." She said, noting my pokémon.

"Yup. Meet Cecil, my Farfetch'd."

"How do you do?" She asked him.

"As well as I can be." Cecil turned to me. "You know her?"

"You might say that." I replied, "I know, it must be the most amazing thing to know the most beautiful person on the planet."

"Oh, Rick." Rai smiled and giggled a bit. I leaned over and kissed her. She kissed back quite energetically.

"If you don't mind. . ." Cecil sounded impatient, and I quickly broke the kiss with Rai, "Did you have anything in particular you wanted to do with me? If not, I'll go back to my poké ball. . ."

"You don't have to do that. . . you don't have to go in there if you don't want to."

"But. . . most trainers usually. . ."

"Hop on my shoulder."

"What?"

"Hop on my shoulder!"

Cecil hopped up off the table onto my shoulder. I said to him, "That's not so bad, is it?"

"Why do you want me here?"

"It's one of those laws of coolness or something." I turned to Rai, "So have you considered restarting your pokémon training yet?"

"Well, I know I have to sometime. . . I can't dwell on my fears all my life. . ."

"Hey, if it would have any bearing at all, I'll help you once you do."

She smiled. "Thanks. . ." And there we were kissing again.

"Ahem." Cecil put bluntly.

"Oh, sorry. . ." I pulled back from Rai. "So I was going to be gone for I hoped the rest of the afternoon. See you tomorrow?"

"Alright. Bye, Rick."

"See you tomorrow then, Rai."

I watched her off. Then I turned to the supplies counter to buy a ruksak with enough Super Potions to last a few hundred battles or so, as well as a couple of various Heals.

I also got a notepad. "What's that for?" Asked Cecil.

"This is so I can keep track of everything. Mission One: Find a Cubone."

  


"You do ever so love your video games, don't you, Rick?"

"Oh, yes. Hop off for a second." This was indeed the place where one could most likely find a Cubone. A cemetery. It was still too light out, so we were going to check the woods behind them for their nesting grounds. Cecil hopped off of me as I took off my shirt and stuffed it into the bag. "We're going to try this my way. Remember everything I told you on the way here?"

"I think so."

"Good. If this doesn't work out, I could always subdue the Cubone by myself."

Cecil hopped back on my bare shoulder (I wished Rai were there right then. I love how she swoons over me every time I take off my shirt.) and we walked into the woods.

We had little lick, as dense vegetation usually attracts many species of pokémon, none of them were Cubones. I had Cecil fight in a few battles, but some of the pokémon here were tough, and I fought a lot of battles for him, giving him pointers on how to do some things.

He seemed distant the entire time, as though he was recalling something quite unpleasant. Wile in the middle of a battle with a Spearow, he just seemed to crack, and almost beat the poor thing to death. I stopped him, and the Spearow got away, but I couldn't help but wonder what made Cecil lash out in anger like that. . .

"Cecil. . . what's wrong?"

"The world. . . I'm sorry, master."

"Master?"

"Sorry. Rick."

That was odd. I never insisted that he call me master. . . "Buck up. Life's a blast, and we're gonna make the most of it."

"I'm very sorry. . ."

"Don't be! Please! I get depressed when others are sad. . ."

He hopped back up on my shoulder. I rubbed the back of his neck in sympathy.

It was at about that moment that I spotted a quite abandoned house out on the horizon. . . all run down and hints like that. "Cecil. . . Are we still near the graveyard?"

"I should think so. We were traveling with it, it should still be nearby. . ."

"Good. . ."

  


The house had no doorbell, which was a good sign that it was nice and old. It might as well have been a Marowak breeding ground. . .

"Cecil. . . remember all the moves, the footwork. . ."

"Yes I do."

"Good. This is just a little experiment." Cecil cringed at that word for some reason.

I opened the door slowly, enough for it to make a satisfying _creak_. I pulled a flashlight from my bag (The soft glow of my natural flame isn't enough to see very well in the dark, and it's also behind my eyes. . .) and flicked it on. The house was indeed very old. . . as evidenced by the size of the Radio in the corner of the living room. There was a thin layer of dust on it. A thin layer. . .

A _thin_ layer?

I looked over by the bottom of the stairwell. The dust was even thinner, and pushed around in several places. And there were small, circular places of non-dust. . .

"Cubone tracks." I whispered.

"It would seem so." Cecil whispered back, "Lucky find."

A clatter of noise from up the stairs. "Cubone. . ." the voice said without saying anything in particular.

I fingered the poké balls in my pocket. I made it a point to store my master ball in my ruksack, so I wouldn't accidentally pull it out. I'm saving it for the ultimate mission. . .

"Cecil. . ." I whispered him as we ascended the stairwell, "Be on the lookout. The Cubone will more than likely hear us. . ."

"Who's there?" A voice echoed in very obvious Cubone language.

"This is the newbie trainer, Rick Griffin. Come out with your hands up or I'll be forced to capture you."

Though I couldn't see him, I knew the Cubone actually had to think about this for a bit, as indicated by the long pause. "Are you. . . nice?"

Not surprising. Cubones had a tendency to be depressed for most of their childhood. "Just come out and look at me. . ."

The Cubone which I was sure I had talked to stepped into the light. "You're a hybrid. . ."

"Not by choice, I can assure you."

The Cubone readied his bone club, and lowered his eyebrows a bit. "Fight me. I won't run."

Battle-enthused. I like that. "Cecil, ready position."

Cecil hopped off my shoulder and pulled out his twig into the sword fighting position.

"Strike!" I yelled. Cecil lunged forward, only for his twig to meet with the Cubone's in a loud _crack_ing noise. This continued for a minute or so, and I tested, "Cecil, Dark Knight Strike!"

Cecil backed down for a second, holding his stick in guard position, waiting. Cubone made the mistake of attacking. Cecil quickly struck at his defenseless side, then again at the other when Cubone reacted to it. Cubone swung, but Cecil had hopped back far enough to dodge it.

(That was basically the extent of his training, I wanted to get some more moves for him, but I didn't have any Trainer's Manuals.)

Cubone was breathless, so he swung his bone again in anger. Cecil took the advantage and jabbed him right in the stomach before he could hit. Cubone fell over.

"You win."

I walked over to the Cubone. "So you accept me as your trainer?"

"I've lived here for most of my life. Bored out of my skull, so to speak. Go ahead. . ."

I knelled down and tossed the poké ball on him, and he flashed inside. Then he was outside as I once again pushed the button.

"You're letting me out?"

"You don't _need_ to stay in there. . ."

The Cubone hugged me around the knee, which was pretty much the only thing he could almost get his hands around. "Thank you, master."

"Rick, please." I almost laughed. "You'll need a name, too."

"A name?"

"Yes. . . I think. . . Butz. . ." Say it: Bah-tzu. Hero from Final Fantasy V. Now I had the theme going.

"Yes mas. . . Rick, sir." Butz was very willing to do what I said, but in a much different way than Cecil was. . . like out of enthusiasm instead of duty. "Master Rick, why Butz?"

"He was a hero in a video game. . ."

"A Video Game?"

"Think of it as a fantasy story."

"Okay, Master Rick." I don't think he really cared. He was too excited from finally having someone look after him. "Master Rick, what are we going to do now? Do you live nearby? How many pokémon do you have? I'm hungry. . ."

"Whoa, slow down there. . . let's get something to eat, first." I picked Butz up and held him in my arms, and he hugged me as hard as he could, not letting go in the least. "Come on, Cecil." Cecil jumped onto my shoulder. I walked down the stairs and back out the door, rucksack on my back and Butz in one hand.

Amazing how some things just work out that way.

  


  


TAH-DAAAAAAAAAAA! There was a hamburger inside. Ness takes it. *smack* Ow. . . sorry bout that. My mind was wandering.

Next time on Vagabond? I have no clue yet. I'll wait and see what develops. So. . . Final Fantasy: The Last Hero. You know, that one I thought I was going to get to at the beginning of summer. See my Bio page. Go. Now. Ciao.


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